[LAU] ASCAP Assails Free-Culture, Digital-Rights Groups

[Louigi Verona]

guys!

an interesting point was raised here that if you use someone else's work
without creating original music, then you do not use your skill and thus owe
something to someone.

this, in my opinion, is a vague generalization.

1. sometimes it does require quite a lot of skill. one thing to just take
samples, another - make something decent out of it all.

2. taking samples and working with them is a lot of fun and i would argue
does require skill, simply skill of a different sort than composing original
music. a lot of people who love to do mash ups can do original music as
well, me included. i have a whole collection of tunes where the principle
was to use only someone else's samples. it's a very creative process and
there are masters of that kind of thing around, which are admired and which
do wonders with those samples.

3. i think a lot of the problems with who owes who raises from the fact that
music is so reward heavy. if you are an artist, you expect money, fame and
respect. but we forget that talent in itself is a great-great gift. and not
all people have inspiration and ability to create something wondeful. and
strictly speaking, although we do attribute from an economic perspective
everything to a person who composed something, we should not be blind to
spiritual side of things. many composers and talented artists in other
fields often say that they feel they are driven by some power when they
write their works. and this delicate spiritual experience which endlessly
enriches the soul of an artist is such an important gift, that at times i
think the artist benefits by simply being an artist. it is a benefit which
obviously not a lot of people can or want to recognize, but it's there and
those who do not see it obviously never experienced the power of inspiration
and the boundless happiness that creativity gives.
so i think in general people do not owe anything to artist. if we go that
rode, then we all owe to each other and artists are in a huge debt to people
who build houses, cook food and, of course, we are all in debted to
plumbers.

louigi.
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